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6 ways to use less data

Friday, March 11, 2016

At Dialdirect, we want to make your life easier, which is why we’re the only insurer to offer free once-off data to our customers just for going online. Think of all the things you could do with an extra 500MB of Data this month; you could get Car and Home Insurance quotes, fill in your details for Business Insurance quotes and have us call you back, add Public Liability Insurance to your existing policy, stream a podcast, or watch a brand new TED talk.

And you can do it anywhere, anytime.

If your days are filled with browsing, streaming, listening, watching, and playing online, you might find yourself regularly topping up your data or gritting your teeth through the out-of-bundle rates. That’s why we found six easy ways to use less data each month. Here they are:

1. Update apps via Wi-Fi only

When you get a new smartphone and turn it on, one of the first things you might notice is that it will probably start updating all of your apps automatically. Not many people have unlimited data packages so this can chew through your month’s data in a matter of hours. The best way to solve this problem is to either turn automatic updates off altogether, or if you still like to have the latest versions of your apps, you can change the settings to update them over Wi-Fi only.

If you’re using an Android phone, you can turn this off in your Play Store settings. If you’ve got an iPhone or iPad that runs on iOS 7 or a later version, head over to the ‘Settings’ app on your device, tap on ‘iTunes and App Store’, and you can edit it under the ‘Automatic Downloads’ section.

2. Restrict background data

Letting your apps’ background data stay on is another sure-fire way to run out within days. Some apps need background data to be turned on to function properly, such as weather apps that regularly check for updates to make sure the weather report you receive on your phone is accurate. But there are loads of apps that you don’t need to run all the time, especially if you seldom use them. Restricting background data on these could save you hundreds of MB every month.

On most phones, you can choose the option to disable all background data on all apps, or you can do it one by one. But if your phone is crammed full of apps, this might be a pain to do.

3. Turn off sync

OK, this one might be impossible for those who are always on the go and need to constantly be in touch with the rest of the world. But if you don’t need to monitor your email inbox every second of the day or rush from one meeting to the next, restricting syncing will save you data and battery, as your device will no longer be constantly pinging the server for new content.

To do this, go to your phone’s settings. If you’re on iPhone, you can set ‘Fetch New Data’ to manual, and if you’re on Android, go to ‘Accounts & sync’ in your settings and uncheck the box that says ‘Auto-sync data’. Easy as that.

4. Cache data offline

The best way to minimise unnecessary data usage on your phone is to download or cache content at home or at work. If you want to listen to a podcast, download it on your home or work network so that you can listen later, rather than streaming it on your phone.

5. Monitor your data

The easiest way to keep track of how much data you’re using month to month is to use an app that monitors it for you. Phones usually come with a data monitor but there are apps you can download too.

6. Insure with Dialdirect

Of course, one of the easiest ways to save data is to earn 500MB once-off Data from Dialdirect.

One of the ways we fulfil our promise to make insurance easy is with our online insurance platform, where you can get quotes for Home, Car and Household, or if you’re looking for Business Insurance, you can fill in your details and we’ll call you back. You can also make claims, edit your risk items, and do so much more online. That’s why we offer data to you just for going online. It’s that easy.

All information obtained from http://www.cnet.com/how-to/11-ways-to-trick-android-into-using-less-data/ and http://www.howtogeek.com/212295/how-to%C2%A0reduce-your-iphone%E2%80%99s-cellular-data-usage/